The present invention relates to a vehicle traveling control system which is arranged to execute a traveling speed control for controlling a vehicle speed to follow a preceding vehicle or obstacle and a traveling direction control including a lane-keeping control.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 8-263791 discloses a vehicle traveling control system employing a following control and a lane-keeping control.
However, this vehicle traveling control system yet has a problem to be improved.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle traveling control system which is capable of suitably executing a traveling speed control and a steering control according to a vehicle traveling condition.
An aspect of the present invention resides in a vehicle traveling control system of a host vehicle comprising a following controller and a lane-keeping controller. The following controller executes a following control for controlling an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and a following object ahead of the host vehicle. The lane-keeping controller is coupled with the following controller, and executes a steering control for steering the host vehicle so as to locate the host vehicle within a lane traveled by the host vehicle. A control condition of one of the following control and the steering control is changed according to the control condition of the other of the following control and the steering control.
Another aspect of the present invention resides in a method of controlling a traveling of a host vehicle which method comprises a step of executing a following control for controlling an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and a following object ahead of the host vehicle; a step of executing a steering control for steering the host vehicle so as to locate the host vehicle within a lane traveled by the host vehicle; and a step of changing a control condition of one of the following control and the steering control according to the control condition of the other of the following control and the steering control.